May 26, 2005

New York - Something has to give this weekend when two of the nation's hottest college softball teams clash in the NCAA Division I Softball Championship Super Regional on CSTV in Ann Arbor.

Michigan, the nation's top-ranked and championship's top - seeded team and winners of 12 straight games, seeks its second-straight Women's College World Series berth.  Standing in the Wolverines' way are the Washington Huskies, authors of their own 11-game winning streak.

CSTV coverage of the best-of-three series begins Friday evening and continues on Saturday.  The specific schedule from Alumni Field in Ann Arbor:

Game 1: Friday May 27^th 7pm ET / 4pm PT

Game 2: Saturday May 28^th 2pm ET / 11am PT

Game 3 (if necessary): Saturday May 28^th 5pm ET / 2pm PT

Michigan, 58-4, has been ranked #1 in the land for much of the season and sports an impressive arsenal of power, both at the plate and on the mound.  The Wolverines have clubbed 94 home runs this season, almost twice as much as the previous school mark (50 in 2003).  The pitching corps is led by junior Jennie Ritter, with a 31-1 mark and three no-hitters this season.

At 34-20, Washington, the #16 - seed, is making its eighth appearance in the championship.  The Huskies will be trying to get to the Women's College World Series for the third-straight year.  Senior pitcher Ashley Boek won all three games in last weekend's NCAA regional at Lincoln, Neb., piling up 32 strikeouts and sporting a miniscule 0.60 ERA over the weekend

Carter Blackburn will call the CSTV play-by-play for the weekend's games, with analysis from Ann Schatz.

CSTV Networks is a multi-media company that consists of the first-ever 24-hour college sports television network, College Sports TV; the leading college sports online network, the CSTV.com Broadband Network; and the first ever 24-hour college sports radio network, SIRIUS College Sports Radio.  Through its numerous platforms, CSTV provides more live college sports games, events, news, information, analysis and broadband content, and reaches more college sports fans, than any other company.

CSTV was co-founded by President/CEO Brian Bedol, Chairman Stephen Greenberg and Executive Vice President Chris Bevilacqua. Bedol and Greenberg co-founded Classic Sports Network, which they sold to ESPN.  It is now ESPN Classic. Bevilacqua is a former senior executive with Nike Inc., where he headed the company's successful foray into the college market.